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Hello Everyone - New Here!

Hello Mommies! I originally posted this on the newborn challenge board, but haven't received much of a response, so I thought I would try here.

I've been trying to post here for days, but everytime I get started my LO wakes up! Anyway, I guess I should introduce myself. I'm Cindy a 41 year old mom of 2. My daughter Krystina is 13 and my LO, Izabella is 4 weeks old! Seems as though being a mommy to a newborn is alot more difficult in my 40's then it was in my 20's... LOL!

Our story - DH and I were married in August and pregnant by October... Surprise! I didn't think it was possible as with all my other pregnancies I had to take clomid to conceive. With my past history of incompetent cervix, they put a cerclage in January 11th. When I went for my usual appt on April 6th they had me admitted because there was no cervix left and the only thing holding her in was the stitch. Unfortunately the hospital was 52 miles from home so I didn't get to see much of my family... except DH because he would come down every day. May 16th my water broke, however I was able to hang on for an additional 8 days and my LO was born on May 24th, my birthday at 33weeks 2days. 3lbs. 11oz & 19in long! She had a 23 day NICU stay, which was thankfully uneventful. She had to be tube fed/bottle fed for the first couple of weeks and then we attempted nursing. It just amazed me how well she did nursing. When she would bottle feed she would get overwhelmed, have bradychardia issues... and desaturate. With nursing, NO issues whatsoever. I shouldn't be surprised though We weren't able to nurse much more than one feeding a day while in the hospital so I knew I was in for a difficult transition at home. HOWEVER, I am proud to say that in the last 4 days she has only had 2 bottles and it was only because *I* was exhausted... had nothing to do with her. I personally think she's having a growth spurt or something because all she wanted to do last night was nurse and would cry whenever I would put her in the bassinet. We do have a couple issues that I would like to talk to the experts (you guys) about.

When we start breastfeeding, I notice she's very impatient. Will often latch, suck twice, release and cry. This can go on for several minutes and then all of a sudden, she's latched, sucking and content. What's going on here?

I also notice that sometimes she latches on... will suck twice and zonk! right to sleep! Waking her is extremely difficult. Any ideas on this?

Iron - Is it normal protocol for doctors to give this to newborns? They started her on this in the NICU, but my pediatrician almost made it seem like she doesn't normally prescribe it.

The visiting nurse was here on Saturday and seemed really concerned that she hadn't had a BM in 5 days. Is this an issue? It was concerning me as well. Could it be from the iron she is taking? I sure know what it does to me! I had stopped her iron last thursday and she had a huge BM on Saturday night and a normal one this morning.

Re: Hello Everyone - New Here!

My little one was born at 32 weeks and was also in the NICU for 18 days. He was NG fed and also did surprisingly well when we started to nurse, convienent for me I live like 25 min from the hospital, so I could be there whenever they wanted me to breastfeed. The nurses in the NICU also told me to give Hunter .3mL of iron per day and this didn't affect him until we started to eat cereal, he would have like 3-4 poops a day, but I understand it is normal for breastfed babies to go a while with no bm. As for the feeding...she is probably really hungry when she nurses and gets irritated waiting for your "letdown", then once it starts flowing she is good. Hunter would fall asleep while feeding too, I would nurse from one side then change him or burp him, just enough to wake him up, the do the other side. Sometimes he didn't want the second side, so I just left it at that.

Re: Hello Everyone - New Here!

Hello there! My little fellow was born at 27 weeks, and in the NICU for five months. He was a surprise too, we weren't planning on trying for a baby for another six months.

I was only able to nurse him once a day too, the rest of the time it was the bottle or tube and it led to some serious issues. Plus he would brady and desat with the bottle too.

Your little one's latching pattern sounds so like DS's it's scary. With him it was a couple of things, he didn't like waiting for letdown. After months of tube feeding, it makes sense that he was going to be impatient. The other thing with me was and still is a supply issue. I've tried everything I could find that was both safe and reccomended and, at best I'll only get around 3 ounces a day when I pump. It's a complete mystery as to why, I've been tested for hormone inbalance and thyroid issues and they came up normal. So he's mostly bottle fed now a mix of what I can produce, what I have in the freezer and Neosure. He definately has some nipple confusion going on, but if things are right for him he will latch on and often fall asleep there. I think for him a lot of it is the old comfort booby thing.

As for the iron, that'll clog a baby up big time. DS was constipated when I had to start supplimenting with the Neosure. He's getting past it now though. A wonderful nurse who had all her children premature said that, the gentlest way she'd found to relieve constipation in her LO's was, by adding a small amount of pasteurised apple juice to their milk no more than twice a day. Not wanting to add any more chemicals into Robert's system than we had to (formula), we tried it once a day and it works like a charm. We have a much more comfortable baby thank's to that tip.

Hope that helps a bit, sorry it's a bit of a ramble, bigtime sleep deprivation here, we have a very early teether.

Re: Hello Everyone - New Here!

I would prime your breast before you offer it to make it easier on your baby. Do you have a good manual pump around the house? Its easy to just pop that sucker on for a sec to get the milk going Know how to hand express, that'll work too? hth
( I'm no expert.)

Re: Hello Everyone - New Here!

Yes... I think you both are absolutely right, she gets impatient waiting for letdown. She seemed a bit better yesterday, but I noticed that if she wakes up hungry and I mess around too much by changing her diaper and stuff before hand it's just too much and she REALLY gets upset. She wants it and she wants it now! She also nursed ALOT yesterday so my bewbies didn't seem to get as full and that seemed to help with regards to latch.

Oh and I spoke with her ped and we are now doing the iron every other day instead.

Re: Hello Everyone - New Here!

Sounds like your starting to work things out. About the frustration thing, my dd did the same thing and I finally figured out she needed to nurse more often. By the time she acted hungry she was apparently very hungry. Try offering a bit sooner, it helped us A BUNCH.

I'm guessing the iron is because the lo's didn't have enough time to build up their supply while in utero. I believe they normally have about 6-12 mos supply, so if they don't have that stock pile they need to get it else where. Here is a linkhttp://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/vi...on.html#atrisk